International cruiser with 70 nCoV infected persons visited Vietnam ports

The Diamond Princess, operated by Princess Cruise under the British-American Carnival Corporation & Plc., visited the Chan May Port in Thua Thien-Hue Province on January 27 with over 2,700 passengers of multiple nationalities and about 1,000 crew members from Hong Kong, Le Van Tien, head of the Chan May Border Guard Force, said Sunday.

"The ship docked at the port at 7 a.m. on January 27, and its passengers were taken by tour agencies to visit Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An. They had their temperatures checked along with other medical checks before going onshore. The ship left the Chan May Port at 5 p.m. the same day to go to Quang Ninh," he said.

The ship took about 2,500 passengers, mostly Japanese, to Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh Province on January 28, provincial authorities said Saturday. All the passengers and crew members were also checked for body temperatures and other symptoms before going to Ha Long. They stayed in the bay from 9:15 a.m. to 6 p.m. the same day.

Quang Ninh authorities said that the Ha Long International Cruise Port has carried out medical checks on employees who had come into contact with persons on the ship, and everyone is in stable health so far.

The province has also sanitized about 40 ships which helped Diamond Princess passengers go around Ha Long Bay as a preventive measure.

The Diamond Princess was placed on a two-week quarantine on arriving in Japan's Yokohama City Monday after dozens of passengers tested positive with the nCoV, Reuters reported. About 3,700 people are aboard the ship, it added.

As of Sunday, 70 people on board had tested positive with the virus, multiple reports said.

Vietnam officially declared the nCoV outbreak an epidemic on February 1 and confirmed its 14th infected case on Sunday. Three of them has been discharged from the hospital.

The global death toll of the epidemic has risen to 814 – one each in the Philippines and Hong Kong, and the remaining in mainland China.